Giant Leopard Moth

Yesterday morning I “spotted” a giant leopard moth at the gas station.

Giant Leopard Moth (Hypercompe scribonia)

Of course I didn’t know what it was when I saw it (other than that it was a moth). I had to look it up. The problem is I don’t have a good reference on moths (I do have a couple on butterflies, but not much on moths). Beth told me to look it up on the Internet, and I told her I’d try to find it in a book. That’s one way to tell old people from young people. She found it in short order, so this ID belongs to her.

It wasn’t in my book.

The Wikipedia article mentions that some of the spots near the moth’s head can be blue (and they have a few pictures showing that). I looked more closely at this one, and Bingo – some of the spots are indeed blue!

We bug geeks are not very rare. Four years ago I posted a photo of a Forrester moth, the only one I’ve ever seen. Yesterday I got a comment on that post from someone in Tennessee who just saw one on their patio door.